Tickets go on sale on Monday, Nov. 25, for the Grammy-winning Christian McBride Big Band, which will headline the 31st annual New Trier Jazz Festival on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. McBride, the preeminent bassist of his generation and a musician who defies stylistic classification, fronts his 18-piece band comprised of New York’s most dynamic jazz musicians. Their performance will cap a free, daylong, non-competitive student jazz festival, one of the nation’s largest.

There will also be three free public concerts during the day:- Caroline Davis Quartet, “storming” and “thoughtful” highly regarded Chicago foursome. Noon.- Jazz Directors’ Big Band, comprised of the visiting schools’ band directors, on stage at 2:45 p.m.- Master Classes at 3 p.m. led by members of the Christian McBride Big Band- University of Illinois Jazz Ensemble, premier collegiate jazz group that tours the world, performs at 4 p.m.

For its thirty-first year, the New Trier Jazz Festival will host nearly 50 visiting high school and middle school jazz ensembles from around the country and Canada. Students spend the day performing for world-renowned jazz clinicians, attending workshops and master classes, and taking in concerts. All daytime events are free and open to the public.

The evening concert will open with a set by New Trier’s top jazz group, Jazz Ensemble 1, followed by a 90-minute set by the electrifying Christian McBride Big Band.

Christian McBride, a mainstay of the jazz world, was considered a prodigy when he started at Juilliard. He’s gone on to win three Grammys, collaborating along the way with everyone from jazz greats Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock to pop stars Sting, Carly Simon and James Brown, to opera legend Kathleen Battle and hip-hop’s Queen Latifah. He has created works dedicated to civil rights leaders and is co-director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.